Page 43 of Wolf's Chance

“It’s complicated to explain.” I also wasn’t sure how I was going to ask Alpha Cannon for help from his shaman. If heevenhada shaman. “If I can get them to agree to meet you, will you come?”

“Will they bite me?”

“For fuck’s sake, Willow. It was a nip.” She ignored my protest and waited patiently. “They won’t bite you.” I hesitated, and her eyebrows raised in question. “They may take some blood.”

“Why would they need my blood?”

“Willow, you’re having visions. You’re dreaming about people you’ve never met and places you’ve never been to. Is thisreallythe part you’re going to question?”

Dipping her head, she stared at the floor. “I don’t know, don’t you think I,we, should be questioning it all?”

“Yes. I do. HenceI want you to meet someone.”

“Will they take blood from you too?”

I almost told her it wouldn’t be necessary, but I lied and nodded. She seemed to relax then. She also looked ready to pass out.

“We need to get you home.”

“Yeah.” She tried to stand up but swayed. “Shit, you’re doing it again.”

“Or painting seven full-on landscapes in a week hasn’t helped,” I griped as I reached to steady her.

Willow smiled at the acidity in my tone. “Or that.” She leaned into me, and I knew, had she been healthier, she would have wanted to put as much distance between us as possible. “I won’t make the walk.”

“You don’t say.” My hand circled the nape of her neck, my thumb hovering over one of her pressure points, ready to press down.

“You’re even more sarcastic than I am.” Willow looked up at me. “I think I’m going to pass out.”

“You are.” I applied pressure to the point I knew would incapacitate her, and caught her as she fell, then looked around the studio. “Now what?” Picking her up, I looked for a place to lay her down. “I should have kept moving,” I muttered to myself.

The store had stools and a sales desk but no actual bench. Carrying her through to the small kitchenette, I had no choice but to put her on the short counter beside the sink. She was half slumped over in a sitting position, but I hoped I didn’t need to wait too long.

Pulling the phone from the inside of my jacket, I called the one number I had stored in there.

“Caleb?”

“Royce…I need a shaman.” I heard his unspoken question. “She’s painted seven more. Places she should never know existed.” My reflection looked back at me as I stared out the small window in the back of the store, grateful that no one passing by would see the store owner passed out beside me.

“She’s human,” Royce reminded me. “A shaman will be of no use for her.”

“No, I don’t expect him to be, but he needs to see these paintings. He needs to ask Luna for answers.”

“Now you believe?” I understood the skepticism in his voice.

“I always believed. I just didn’t accept the plan mapped out for me.”

I heard him grunt. “Few of us rarely do.”

The sound of the phone being covered followed, and when he came on the line, I was expecting him. “Alpha Cannon.”

“We don’t have a shaman,” he told me bluntly. “We have a doctor and, well…it’s complicated.”

“Too complicated for an alpha?”

“What did she paint?”

“It’d be easier if you asked what she didn’t paint.” Tilting my head back, I looked at the ceiling. “She’s been drawing my wolf.”

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